The fate of children on Nauru now rests squarely with Prime Minister Morrison as moderate Liberal MPs deliver ultimatum

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) welcomes the courage and leadership shown by liberal moderates in demanding Prime Minister Morrison evacuate all children seeking asylum and their families off Nauru.

The current critical situation on Nauru is well documented by organisations including the ASRC, and most recently by Medicines Sans Frontiers’ (MSF) exposure of the alarming scale of mental health crisis on Nauru.

MSF doctor’s experience mirrors what the ASRC’s detention advocacy team witness daily, taking phone calls from desperate parents trying to keep their children alive in the absence of proper medical care.

The ASRC team is currently working with over 28 children who are in urgent need of medical transfer. There are at least another 20 children on our wait list, all in critical mental health condition.

Children and their families cannot wait for case by case emergency transfers via legal intervention. As Doctors have warned, a child will die if this process continues.

The leadership shown by liberal moderates in their ultimatum to Prime Minister to evacuate kids off Nauru demonstrates that protecting children’s lives is not about right or left politics but about right and wrong.

The Prime Minister now has a choice – to listen to his own Party and Australian Doctors or refuse to act and keep children in conditions that put them at risk of dying.

CEO of the ASRC, Kon Karapanagiotidis said: “This is a huge step for the safety of children currently suffering repeated suicidality and Traumatic Withdrawal Syndrome without proper medical care on Nauru.”

“The fate of children on Nauru now rests squarely with Prime Minister Morrison – he must act now to transfer children and their families to Australia immediately to safety for proper medical care.”

“Julia Banks MP, Craig Laundy MP and Russell Broadbent MP have demonstrated what true leadership looks like.”

“This is a tipping point and the Prime Minister needs to act accordingly and get all kids and their families off Nauru.”

“This is a humanitarian crisis that needs a solution above politics. Our parliament must provide that solution,” Kon said.